19/05/2024
Sierra Leone Poverty:
SHOCKING!
By Moses Kay Fembeh
Sierra Leone is a nation that has been governed by bad leadership since inception, probably some 63 years ago. That's to say when Sir Milton Margai took over as the country's first prime minister in April 1961. The country has a total of seventeen ethnic groups and immigrants, for example: the Indians, Lebanese, Nigerians, and the Chinese, and thousands of these people are within the Sierra Leonean population.
However, the country's past and present leadership still find it difficult to maintain the economy of the land, and food sufficiency has been a major problem for Sierra Leoneans because the government is heavily dependent on imported commodities, and the nation's staple food, rice is heavily imported from China and India. We all know what it means to import rice into the country; it will affect the exchange rate since it involves millions of dollars in exchange for the Leones to purchase.
Notwithstanding, if we can recall and revisit our history books, it may interest us to know that Sierra Leone is a land that was cherished and mostly visited in West Africa because of its education, minerals, and other attractive natural resources, and the railway stations which would be later catapulted or sold to neighboring Guinea by the late President Siaka Stevens and cohorts. Were the rails not needed by Sierra Leoneans? Today, transportation is another big challenge, especially with the increments in the tollgate fare, and the fuel hoarders keep on troubling the public with their mischievous behavior in selling the petroleum products.
We also have other unfortunate celebrated circumstances such as youth unemployment, corruption, tribalism, nepotism, and favoritism. Due to massive unemployment and economic instability ravaging the country, it has been extremely difficult for many breadwinners to feed their families a three or two square meal a day. There is no price control, and everything in the market is skyrocketing. People used to go to the market with 50,000 to purchase valuable cooking items, but it's not common in the last two years, especially 2024. 50,000, which is 50 Leones, is seen like any little money that cannot even buy two cans of sardines or baby peak milk. What a nation! In all these hard times, are salaries reflecting the economy of the land? No, some civil servants are still paid below 2000 Leones.
Imagine you have a family of six, and you are spending 150 Leones on food on a daily basis, multiplied by 30 days it's 4,500, and you're expected to dress up well to go to work and have other family commitments, health, and other emergency issues that are not budgeted for. How can someone save for retirement? Sierra Leone Poverty is shocking.